October 25, 2022

Doug Mastriano's campaign struggling to hide what a ginormous right-wing nut he is

Doug Mastriano's campaign struggling to hide what a ginormous right-wing nut he is
GOP candidate for governor in Pennsylvania fakes normalcy, champions conspiracy theories that make QAnon look tame

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 25, 2022 6:01AM (EDT)


(Salon) Doug Mastriano, the Republican candidate for Pennsylvania governor, was a no-show. He had been scheduled to speak over the weekend at the ReAwaken America Tour at its stop in Manheim, a small town in Lancaster County west of Philadelphia. Even Donald Trump took time to call into this Christian nationalist shindig, whose participants didn't bother to hide their fascist longings. But even though Mastriano was scheduled to appear with other pro-insurrection figures, including Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn and MyPilllow CEO Mike Lindell, at the very last minute, Mastriano decided he was too busy to show up.

The likely real reason for Mastriano's hasty pull-out is evident in the tweets of HuffPost reporter Christopher Mathias, who spent two days at the conference. Even by the basement-level standards of a Trump loyalist like Mastriano — who was at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection — this gathering was a doozy. It wasn't just the usual slate of election denialists like Flynn and Lindell, along with Eric Trump and Roger Stone. This event featured book-burning preacher Greg Locke, who believes Harry Potter and Halloween are Satanic and told the crowd he was being persecuted by "BLM, antifa, witches and warlocks." Self-declared prophet Bo Polny declared that the "angel of death" would be coming for President Biden, Hillary Clinton and Chief Justice John Roberts, among others, by the end of the year. Trans people were described by another speaker as the work of Satan. Another denounced quantum physics as "demonic."

Mastriano is falling behind Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania's Democratic attorney general, in the governor's race, largely due to the entirely correct perception that Mastriano is a Christian nationalist nutjob who wants to overthrow democracy and will try to steal the 2024 election for Trump, if he gains the power to do so. Indeed, Mastriano is performing even worse than the other major Republican running for statewide office, U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz, even though Oz is a puppy-killer who seems to have barely spent any time in Pennsylvania before Trump suggested he run for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Pat Toomey. In order to win in this consummate swing state, Mastriano has to trick moderate and even some conservative-but-not-bananas voters into believing he can't really be that nuts. And that's a lot harder to pull off if he's on stage with people who claim that Bible-based numerology offers clear predictions that Trump will replace Biden in 2023. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/10/25/doug-mastrianos-campaign-struggling-to-hide-what-a-ginormous-right-wing-nut-he-is/

October 25, 2022

The remarkable variety of Caribbean cornmeal

The remarkable variety of Caribbean cornmeal
Caribbean fungi — no relation to mushrooms — is ready for its stateside close-up

By KAYLA STEWART
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 24, 2022 5:30PM (EDT)




In Caribbean restaurants across America, patrons have become accustomed to common dishes such as jerk chicken, beef patties, and oxtail. The heat and vibrance of Caribbean food has made a splash stateside, but some of the more home-style, foundational dishes are still struggling to gain attention in the restaurant space.

Fungi — pronounced "foon-ji," with no relation to mushrooms — is one of them. A staple Caribbean cornmeal dish flaked with okra and laced with butter can be found throughout the islands, particularly in the West Indies and Virgin Islands. The thickened, earthy porridge-like dish has roots in slavery itself, and is one of many dishes that demonstrates the importance of cornmeal in Caribbean foodways.

A staple with pseudonyms

Ramin Ganeshram, a journalist, food writer, trained chef, and executive director of Connecticut's Westport Museum for History and Culture, explains, "We call [fungi] cou cou [sometimes written as "coo coo"] in Trinidad, and it's called different things in different parts of the Caribbean."

Ganeshram is a multiracial American with Trinidadian heritage who has spent her career focusing on the colonial and early federal foodways of African Americans and mixed race people, with a focus in the Caribbean. (She also authored a book about Hercules, George Washington's enslaved, talented Black chef).

She explained that cornmeal-based fungi takes a variety of shapes across the Caribbean community. Her first memory eating the cornmeal is the way it's still cooked in Trinidad: with okra. It's molded into a cake-like or molded figure or some sort, then sliced and eaten with any kind of stewed dish. ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/10/24/the-remarkable-variety-of-caribbean-cornmeal_partner/

October 25, 2022

Metrolink's new Arrow Line opens between San Bernardino and Redlands

New rail service will begin transporting passengers between San Bernardino and Redlands, Calif., on Oct. 24 as the Arrow, a nine-mile extension of Metrolink’s San Bernardino Line, makes its first runs.

Operations on the line follow a ribbon cutting ceremony that was held on Oct. 21 to mark not only the start of Arrow Line service, but “a new age of commuter transit in Southern California.” Arrow, which has been more than a decade in the making, features new tracks, enhanced street crossings, quiet zones and five stations.

“The launch of the Arrow Line signals the next generation of commuter rail service across our region. This clean-air service will help to improve air quality while providing direct access to the Metrolink system for tens of thousands of additional commuters in one of the fastest-growing population and economic centers in the nation,” said Art Bishop, president of the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA) Board and Mayor pro Tem of the Town of Apple Valley.

Metrolink will operate 22 weekday roundtrip trains between Redlands University and downtown San Bernardino, which will increase to 25 weekday roundtrips once quiet zones are approved for an additional early morning and two late night trains. ..............(more)

https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/article/21284812/metrolinks-new-arrow-line-opens-between-san-bernardino-and-redlands

October 24, 2022

Grand Rapids could see its first Democratic representative in decades

(Detroit Free Press) It has been decades since the greater Grand Rapids area has had a Democratic representative in Congress, but the party has a chance to pick up a House seat there this cycle thanks to the state's latest round of redistricting.

Michigan’s new 3rd Congressional District, like the old one, is based around Grand Rapids. Unlike the old one, it now stretches west to the shores of Lake Michigan, covering parts of Muskegon and Ottawa counties. That includes the cities of Muskegon and Grand Haven.

New representation will also mark the new district — incumbent Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Grand Rapids Township, narrowly lost to primary challenger John Gibbs. Gibbs, a Republican who worked in the Department of Housing and Urban Development under former President Donald Trump's administration, now faces Democrat Hillary Scholten for the open seat. .........(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/10/24/elections-congress-hillary-scholten-john-gibbs-preview/69567813007/

October 24, 2022

Ethan Crumbley: I gave my dad money to buy gun used in school shooting

(Detroit Free Press) Teenager Ethan Crumbley, who 11 months ago penned in his journal, "I will cause the biggest school shooting in Michigan's history. I have fully mentally lost it," pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree murder and terrorism charges for the bloodshed he vowed to carry out at Oxford High School four days after his parents bought him a gun.

Crumbley dropped a bombshell in admitting to his crimes, telling the judge that he gave his father money to buy him the gun that he used in the mass shooting, and that the gun was easily accessible — contradicting his parents' claims that the gun was securely stored.

"It was not locked," Ethan Crumbley said in court.

James and Jennifer Crumbley are charged with involuntary manslaughter over allegations involving their son's access to the gun. .............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2022/10/24/ethan-crumbley-guilty-gun-locked-up/69585963007/

October 24, 2022

Florida Man Finds Giant Hissing Alligator In Storm Drain: "Just When You Thought You've Seen Everyth

And we’ve seen our fair share of alligators showing up where they’re not supposed to be.

From one getting into a lady’s kitchen, to a Minnesota hunter finding one near his downed buck, to just the other day when one turned up on a Florida beach, these guys will keep you guessing.

According to WFTV, a man in Apopka, Florida posted a hilarious video showing a crazy sight from just in front of his house.

While looking into his storm drain, he found a giant, hissing alligator, with it’s beady eyes glaring right back at him. ...............(more)

https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2022/10/23/florida-man-finds-giant-hissing-alligator-in-storm-drain-just-when-you-thought-youve-seen-everything/

October 24, 2022

Bob Woodward on COVID, Kim Jong-un and "The Trump Tapes": "He's drowning in himself"

Bob Woodward on COVID, Kim Jong-un and "The Trump Tapes": "He's drowning in himself"
Legendary reporter releases full recordings of his Trump interviews — and it's even worse than you might think

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
Columnist
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 24, 2022 9:24AM (EDT)


(Salon) Venerable reporter Bob Woodward has produced a new audiobook called "The Trump Tapes," which contains the 20 interviews he conducted with Donald Trump in the course of reporting and writing his three books about the ex-president's administration, "Fear," "Rage" and "Peril" (the latter with Robert Costa). Woodward has never released full interviews or raw transcripts before, but decided to do it this time because Trump's words don't come across the same way in print. I think that's true. I've read a number of Trump books over the past five years and I'm always struck by the fact that he doesn't seem quite on the page as he does on video, even when the authors are quoting him saying something we've all seen or heard.

(Of course Trump now says the tapes actually belong to him and claims he's already hired lawyers to sue Woodward, whom he describes as a very sleazy guy. One would expect nothing less.)

Woodward shared some of the audio in a piece for the Washington Post over the weekend in advance of the audiobook's release this week. One of its most interesting aspects is the extent to which Woodward himself was clearly appalled by the man he was interviewing. That's been pretty clear in the previously published books and interviews but it really comes through in this piece. This is a reporter who's interviewed every president of the last 50 years and many other powerful officials, and he sounds ... spooked.

Some of the exchanges in the article are familiar ground but always worth revisiting since Trump is clearly close to announcing that he's running again in 2024. (At a rally in Texas over the weekend he said, "I will probably have to do it again.&quot Woodward provides one of the discussions about Trump's relationship with Kim Jong-un, which the then-president considered beyond special:



....(snip)....

Woodward was perhaps most upset by Trump's attitude toward the pandemic, which sounds even more dreadful than it did in real time. Woodward asks at one point if Trump thinks the crisis — in which the entire world economy was shut down and thousands were dying every day — was "the leadership test of a lifetime" and Trump barks out "No!" It is an exceedingly weird response. He consistently tells Woodward that everything is going great, while clearly failing to grasp the gravity of the situation. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/10/24/bob-woodward-on-covid-kim-jong-un-and-the-tapes-hes-drowning-in-himself/

October 23, 2022

Leonard Pitts Jr.: If Republicans couldn't cheat, they couldn't win

Leonard Pitts Jr.: If Republicans couldn’t cheat, they couldn’t win


My only object here is to express the exhausted frustration one feels as an African American with people constantly asking you to “prove” racism to them — like it’s some UFO hoax, like you’re an unreliable witness to your own experience, like you don’t know what you know, haven’t seen what you’ve seen or lived what you’ve lived. It’s a recurring theme. Someone always seems ready to inform us that what seems terrible, really isn’t.

Honestly, Tony, my first instinct was to ignore you.

That’s become my go-to when readers ask me, as you did in a recent email, to prove to their satisfaction that, “Republicans are keeping Black people from voting.” When I didn’t respond promptly enough, you said this strengthened your feeling “that this is a fabricated issue with no real merit.”

Lord, where to begin? Tony, I’m not your research assistant. Moreover, there’s this new invention called Google, which, with a few keystrokes, can point you to the arguments I and others have made about GOP voter suppression. If, that is, you really want to know. I don’t think you do.

And as I say, I’d have deleted your email except that it roughly coincided with the release last week of a heart-rending video by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times of Florida ex-felons being arrested for alleged voter fraud. This, courtesy of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ so-called Office of Election Crimes and Security, a force putatively tasked with combating voter fraud.

Except, of course, that there’s virtually no such thing in this country — certainly not of such magnitude as to sway an election, much less justify a strike force. So Gov. DeFascist’s election cops are but the latest GOP effort to suppress opposition voting. Otherwise, they’d have to face the fact that they are simply not very popular: losers of seven of the last eight presidential popular votes, stranded on the short end of public opinion on everything from guns to LGBTQ rights to abortion. If they couldn’t cheat, they couldn’t win. ..........(more)

https://www.sunjournal.com/2022/10/23/leonard-pitts-jr-if-republicans-couldnt-cheat-they-couldnt-win/

October 23, 2022

Republicans always choose radicalization to energize their electoral base

Republicans always choose radicalization to energize their electoral base
Thomas Zimmer

Conservatives have long harnessed the extremist, far-right energies of their base to animate the party
Sat 22 Oct 2022 06.20 EDT


(Guardian UK) In the days and weeks after the attack on the Capitol, Republican leaders publicly acknowledged Donald Trump’s culpability. Last week’s January 6 hearings presented footage of House minority leader Kevin McCarthy declaring Trump should have “immediately denounced” the attack and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell accusing Trump of ignoring his duty as president. It was a striking reminder that immediately after the insurrection, elected Republicans as well as some of Trump’s allies in the rightwing media were rattled by what had happened, uncertain of how to continue.

But the moment quickly passed. January 6 obviously wasn’t enough for Republicans in Congress to actually impeach or for conservatives to break with Trump in any meaningful way. Instead, they closed ranks and rallied behind Trump: Republicans first acquitted him, then they started obstructing every attempt to hold him accountable, and now a majority of GOP candidates are running on the big lie, denying the legitimacy of the 2020 election. The few who broke with Trump have been fully marginalized or even ostracized from the party. Republicans did not come to see January 6 as the end of the line, the outrageous conclusion of the Trumpian experiment – they have come to see it as a blueprint: never concede an election, never accept defeat at the hands of what they see as a fundamentally “un-American” enemy.

Was there a viable alternative path after January 6? Was that road not taken ever as realistically an option as the statements by McConnell and McCarthy may suggest, at least at first sight? I’m skeptical. I have no doubt that many Republicans, like McConnell himself, personally despise Trump for summoning a mob to attack the Capitol. They may consider Trump too crass, just as they probably aren’t entirely comfortable with the rise of Trump-endorsed white Christian nationalist extremists like Marjorie Taylor Greene or Doug Mastriano.

....(snip)....

The problem runs a lot deeper than Trump. It is crucial to grapple with the underlying ideas and dynamics that have animated the Republican party’s path for a long time. They have led to a situation in which moments of brief uncertainty almost always result in a further radicalization of the Republican party and the right in general. What happened after the 2012 election defeat that shook conservatives to the core is an instructive example: the Republican National Committee famously released an “autopsy” report that called for moderation and outreach to traditionally marginalized groups. But instead, the GOP doubled down – and went with Trumpism. ...............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/22/republicans-january-6-trumpism-radicalization-voters

October 23, 2022

"If Meloni Pursues Reactionary Positions, We Will Have to Mobilize All Our Powers"

from Der Spiegel:


"If Meloni Pursues Reactionary Positions, We Will Have to Mobilize All Our Powers"
After the election victory of Giorgia Meloni in Italy, the head of the Five Star Movement, Giuseppe Conte, is concerned that she will lead Italy to the right-wing fringe. In an interview, he talks about what lies ahead for his country.

Interview Conducted by Frank Hornig in Rome
17.10.2022, 17.40 Uhr



....(snip)....

DER SPIEGEL: Mr. Conte, many Germans are having a hard time understanding Giorgia Meloni …

Conte: … a problem shared by many Italians.

DER SPIEGEL: Can you explain how the right-wing nationalist thinks? You had a fair amount of interaction with her when you were prime minister.

Conte: Italy was the first country in Europe to be struck by the pandemic. We had no instruction manual when we imposed the first lockdown. It was an epochal challenge, and for a great many people, it was a question of life or death. During that time, I didn’t experience Giorgia Meloni as a responsible opposition politician.

DER SPIEGEL: What did she do?

Conte: At crucial moments, she repeatedly positioned herself in opposition to the government in a cheap manner. When we wanted to shut everything down, she wanted to open it all up. And when we wanted to open the country up again, she wanted to close it down.

....(snip)....

DER SPIEGEL: What do you think will happen? Will the three assemble a relatively normal conservative government, or is Italy moving to the right-wing fringe?

Conte: If Meloni implements conservative policies, we will respond with a normal, resolute opposition strategy. But if she pursues reactionary positions and seeks an alliance with (Hungarian Prime Minister) Viktor Orbán, her friends in the Polish government, or the right-wing extremist Spanish party Vox, then we will have to mobilize all of our powers.

DER SPIEGEL: How do you mean?

Conte: I don’t want to see such developments, and I don’t want to speak them into existence. But just a few days ago, Meloni called Poland a model for Italy. And when a significant majority of the European Parliament recently declared that Hungary is no longer a real democracy, party allies of Meloni and Salvini took Orbán’s side. There can be no illiberal course for my country. If necessary, we will position my party as a bulwark against Meloni. Italy is a strong democracy. We must prevent it from leaving Europe’s political center. ..................(more)

https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/former-italian-premier-giuseppe-conte-if-meloni-pursues-reactionary-positions-we-will-have-to-mobilize-all-our-powers-a-9dc81f4c-7a29-411c-9e71-bb8609e0f124